Quentin looked down at the line of kids below him and shouted, "Alright listen carefully cause I'm only gonna say this once," he'd hardly finished his sentence before a cackle of laughter rose up from the group "Hey," he shouted, jumping down from the bench stool that he'd been standing on and storming over to Iris, he hadn't seen who'd started it but he knew it had to have been her, she was the only one with that much power over the group, and the absolute only one who had the cheek to laugh at him on such an important day during such an important meeting, "Something funny?"
She laughed harder, "Look Quent, can I please recommend that you go for a softer approach, it just suits your character more,"
Quentin huffed, "But we're supposed to be an army,"
"No," replied Sparkle, "You're supposed to be telling us the rules of your time travelling machine so that we can go back and save, like, your entire family,"
"Yeah, but it's an important SAS kind of operation," Quentin said turning to his friends and gesturing in the direction of the girls "Tell them,"
Guy sighed, "Quent, I hate to side with the girls on this, but don't you think it's too much of a serious matter for role-playing," he said and his twin brother Gary nodded in agreement.
"No!" shouted Quentin, "No that's exactly why we should be role-playing so that we all know exactly what to do, can't you honestly go along with it for ten minutes," he fell silent as they all exchanged looks, trying to decide what to do then Iris stepped back into the square he had appointed her, sighing silently,
"Fine, ten minutes role-playing,"
In the end, it took a lot longer than ten minutes to finish his play and he sat contentedly on his bench quizzing his team "So what did you learn today?" he asked,
Iris raised her hand, "That a play is a useless means of educating?"
Everyone laughed, "Good point," said Quentin, smiling with them "but seriously," he added, suddenly becoming serious again, Iris could see that this 'operation' as he called it meant a lot to him, she could understand that of course, she'd lost both of her parents to the disease, it was a long time ago and she'd been too young to remember them but the thought of it always made her cry, on the other hand, Quentin's mother had died only a year ago and from what she knew of them they were very close.
She exhaled deeply preparing herself to answer his questions about the time machine he claims to have built, up until now she'd never seen the so-called time machine, he'd been talking about it for weeks but she'd never seen it, not even by accident and they just about lived in the same house, somehow she didn't think that very possible, she was beginning to believe that the time machine was an invention he'd made up, that he was believing his own imagination to help him cope with his mother's death.
"You can only go back 5 years at a time,"
Quentin smiled, "Good,"
"This means that if we want to save your mum we'll need to make three jumps,"
Quentin nodded, "Ok, but why?"
Gary answered, "Because it's gonna take 15 years to convince your mother to leave the city?"
Quentin shook his head as Sparkle turned on her brother "No silly," she said before turning back to Quentin "It's because to make a change permanent across different times you have to change it at its roots,"
Quentin nodded, "Exactly, so it won't be enough just getting her out of the city, we'll need to stop the virus from ever existing,"
"So, kill the doctor?" asked Gary,
Quentin laughed, "No, not quite, it'd just be invented by someone else,"
"Kill all the doctors?" Gary asked,
Quentin sighed, "No Gary,"
Guy jumped up suddenly and shouted, "I know, I know, we'll blow up the labs," He looked around him at the other kids smiling triumphantly
"Honestly guys," gasped Quentin sounding shocked
"What, you said it was a SAS operation, that we were an army remember," was Guy's frustrated response, "Well that's what armies do, kill people and blow things up right?"
Quentin shrugged "Well…"
Iris put up her hand, "Well nothing, we have neither the power nor the guts to kill or blow anything up so you can stop right there,"
Sparkle nodded, "She's right,"
Quentin shrugged "Whatever, we're wasting time here, I'll go get the machine working you lot get something to eat and suit up" he was walking in the direction of the garage, "I won't be long," he called over his shoulder.
A few moments later Iris stood nibbling a sandwich as she watched Quentin putting together his time machine, it looked like a big computer, it was linked to some sort of laptop with no screen, in place of the keyboard, there was a series of buttons and switches, replacing the screen was a few of those sliding things she'd usually seen in the movies, in places like an aeroplane cockpit, and in one corner there were buttons with numbers from 0 – 9, and instead of a sliding pad there was a small screen, it looked entirely blank but as Quentin worked it began to light up, he typed in the numbers for the year of their first jump then stood up.
"Ok," he said, fiddling with a small hand gadget which she couldn't relate to anything she knew, it was shaped like a pyramid, but the corners were rounder, it had five cables attached to it which were then attached to the vests Quentin had made them wear, he had warned them not to take it off at any point after the jump. "This is it,"
"Three jumps?" Iris confirmed,
Quentin nodded, "Yes, but we'll have to move for the second jump."
Gary frowned "Why?"
Quentin raised his eyes from the pyramid to glance at him, then shook his head, "Ready?"
he asked, ignoring Gary's question, and without waiting for an answer, he twisted the top of the pyramid then pushed it down, all at once the room around them began to spin, the walls seemed to come down and the whole world was spinning.
It looked as though everything was being sucked into the machine and Iris wondered if something had gone wrong, there was an explosion of light and a sort of electricity shot through her body, for a moment she felt she was going to explode with everything else, but then it all stopped, the world seemed to be going on just as usual as if nothing strange has happened, looking around they could see that the garage they'd been standing in was now gone all the wires that had been plugged into the wall sockets lay spread out on the floor,
"Alright," said Quentin, bending down to pick it all up, "I'll never get used to that," he stood up having packed everything into a small suitcase and began unplugging his vest
"Is it safe to do that?" asked Sparkle, a little apprehensively.
Quentin nodded, "Sure," after he unplugged them all he started to make his way down the road, the rest of them followed after him as he began to explain why they had to move "You see," he began "the garage wasn't built until a year before my mother died, and we've gone back 5,"
"So it doesn't exist yet" confirmed Guy,
Quentin nodded, "Exactly, and now we need to find a new power source to plug this into," he said raising the bag he was carrying,
Gary frowned "So why didn't we just go inside,"
Quentin stopped quite abruptly and turned to Gary, for a moment he was silent, clearly trying to decide if the question was serious "Because I don't live there yet," he said slowly
A look of realisation crossed his face, "Oh,"
Quentin sighed, tapping the top of Gary's head with his knuckles, "Honestly Gary, what's going on in there?"
They set up in a deserted mall "Will we have to move again?" asked Sparkle; Quentin shrugged then pressed the pyramid.
They managed to make the third jump from the same place and finally they were in the correct time.
"Ready to stop that virus?" asked Quentin, smiling round at them.
Iris laughed. "Even if it means blowing up a lab." She said putting out her hand in front of her
Sparkle placed her hand on top, "Or killing a few doctors."
"Killing ourselves," said Gary as he and Guy joined in, a thought came to him then and he asked, "What happens if we die out of time?"
Quentin shrugged "It's never happened to me," he said placing his hand on top of the pack, "Let's do this!"
He gave them their instructions and told them where they were supposed to be, then he gave them their equipment along with a small gadget about the size of a bottle cap, there was a small button in the middle and as Quentin explained to them it's use it became quite clear to Iris just what they had let themselves into, and how much thought it must have taken for Quentin to put the plan together.
The whole thing was very much like Quentin's play, the twins stayed together at the entrance of the lab to distract anyone coming in, there weren't many people as it was a Saturday and most of the doctors were out to celebrate their succeeding in making the antidote which would eventually become the virus.
Iris had to locate the exact position of each distribution of the chemical and give it to Sparkle and Quentin who would then have to set a small fire in every room once the fires were set the four of them would all go home leaving Iris to release the gas, it was meant as an insect deferent but was very flammable, she would release it around the whole lab by clicking a single button on the control board leaving her with a minimum of a few seconds to click the bottle cap button and get home.
Both buttons sat within arm's reach waiting to be clicked, one more enticing than the other, she had just given them the directions to their last rooms and was waiting for the all-clear from Quentin when the door opened behind her and a man stepped in, Iris spun around quickly, snatching up the bottle lid as she did, she was just about to click it when she remembered Quentin, she couldn't leave him.
"What are you doing in here?" demanded the man
She didn't answer, her mind was filled with other things, what was Quentin doing, were where the twins, as she thought this a voice spoke in her ear,
"All clear," it said, "I'm leaving now," Iris smiled, she decided to give Quentin a few seconds to clear before blowing everything up.
"Do you find something funny?" the doctor asked scornfully,
"As a matter of fact," she replied "I do," then she slammed her hand on the gas release button before squeezing hard on the bottle cap, the man's mouth moved but nothing came out as the world erupted around her, for a moment she wondered if she'd been caught in the explosion then everything stopped, she fell backwards on the floor and closed her eyes tight, her head was spinning, exhaling deeply she sat up unsteadily and opened her eyes, she was in the garage again and around her sat all her friends smiling.
"Is anyone else feeling dizzy?" she asked then without waiting for an answer she turned to Quentin "Did it work?"
He stood up and put his hand out, Iris grabbed it and he helped her to her feet, they all turned towards the house but before they could move the door flung open and a woman stood in the doorway, wild haired, and furious "Quentin!" she screamed, "What the hell was all that noise?"
Quentin swallowed "Mom?"